USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Warwick > History of the town of Warwick, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1854 > Part 2
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Mr. Kelton was a land-surveyor : although his ac- quired attainments were rather limited, he was a good practical workman ; the monuments that he erected bear ample testimony to that fact, even up to the present time.
His family afflictions, in one instance in particu- lar, were uncommonly severe : his wife, for fifty long years before her death, was confined day and night to her bed.
The north-east lobe of Mount Grace has been called by a local name : one of the first settlers, Mr. Samuel Bennett, set down on home-lot No. 40. This lot lies on the side hill, east of the brook, sloping
S S
to
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
towards Mount Grace, below Abijah Fisher's house : the remains of the cellar, and a few apple-trees, are still witnesses of the exact spot. This Mr. Bennett said that one morning, as he stood in his door (which, by the way, faced this part of the mountain), he dis- covered a deer bounding along on the top of the Knob : he said he stepped back, and took down his gun, and fired, "and dropped the buck dead on the spot." His incredulous neighbors, amused with the idea of his killing a deer across the deep ravine, more than half a mile wide, that intervened between his house and the top of the hill in question, ever after- wards called it " Bennett's Knob."
This same Mr. Bennett and wife afterwards lived where Mr. Aaron Bass now lives ; and Mrs. Bennett related a story, that, perhaps, is a little colored with the marvellous. The dwellings in those days were not exactly as they are at the present. Many of them were built with logs ; and those that were framed, as well as those of logs, generally were, one end of them, principally occupied by the chimney, a huge mass of stones piled up as a back for the fireplace; and not unfrequently all that could be called a chimney was a hole in the top of the house to let out the smoke. Eight or ten feet was a fireplace of moderate size in those days ; and some actually used a horse to haul in their back-logs. The house that our good old progen- itors lived in was not out of the fashion. The stones of the chimney on either side, however, were not- exactly fitted to the wooden part of the building, or they had settled away, so that there was a large crack at the side of the jambs, where they could see out.
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Our heroine said she was sitting one evening, spinning on a foot-wheel, and, happening to look round to the side of the fire-place, she saw a bear looking in at the crack, - she plainly saw his eyes glisten. Bruin, after satisfying his curiosity, cleared for the woods.
I have a story to relate of the temerity of one of our first settlers. It was Mr. David Gale, father of the present David Gale, sen. : as he was chopping in the woods, near where the present David Gale now lives, with his son, a small lad, he discovered a mon- strous animal in the woods ; it was unlike any crea- ture he had before seen. The wild beast, on being dis- covered, had immediate recourse to the top of a tree. Mr. Gale, as if unconscious of danger, left his little boy to watch the motions of the ferocious animal, with a charge to keep him on the tree : he went to his house, loaded his gun, returned to the place, and shot the animal, which proved to be nothing less than a full-grown catamount ; and that was the only one that was ever killed in Warwick.
1738.
In the year 1738 a committee of the proprietors was appointed to find out the nearest route from Rox- bury to this new tract of country; and a vote was passed, taxing each of the sixty proprietors, to raise "the sum of six pounds apiece, as a bounty to encour- age the first ten proprietors that shall settle, and comply with the conditions before mentioned by actually moving on, and building a house, &c.
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
I 740.
In 1740 Deacon Davis was empowered to mark out a way through Pequeage (now Athol), and the said plantation, to Northfield. It is not now known exactly where this way was cleared out ; but it is conjec- tured that it passed through the easterly and northerly part of the town, and went into Northfield, near where the old North-county road was afterwards laid.
The old records are silent, as to the proceedings of the proprietors of this new town, for about eight years ; but it may be inferred from the prior proceedings, that the inducements to commence the settlement were not sufficient to allure the wealthy on the one hand, or to enable the poor on the other, to transport themselves and their families to this then unbroken forest, without roads, without means of conveyance, and without any thing to subsist on after their arrival.
1749.
In the year 1749 the bounty was increased to twen- ty pounds to each individual, as an inducement to settle, - ten pounds in advance, five pounds in one year, and five pounds more in two years after settle- ment.
175I.
In this year the proprietors voted to make up the bounty to thirty pounds (old tenor), or the value thereof in silver.
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
1753.
This year fifty pounds was voted to defray the expense of building a sawmill ; and a spot was to be selected where it would accommodate the proprietors ; and, at a meeting of the proprietors of " Gardner's Canada" (as this settlement was still called), it was voted, " to choose a committee to lay out and clear a road to Pequeage near the pond, south-eastwardly from the way proposed and marked to be laid out towards Royalston from Pequeage to the sawmill ; and to come into the way marked out to go from Royalshire to Northfield." And they chose a committee to clear out said road. It was also voted that the committee for building the meeting-house be desired to proceed to accomplish that business : said house to be thirty- five feet long, and thirty feet wide, with nineteen-foot posts.
Said committee was also directed to appoint the spot where the meeting-house was to stand. The place selected by this committee to build said house on, and where the timber was collected and framed, was about forty or fifty rods south of Mr. Elijah Fisk's house ; and it was subsequently moved and raised near where the present meeting-house now stands, for reasons hereafter to be related.
I754.
On the 7th of August this year, the committee for building made a report that Mr. Mason and Mr. Perry
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
were willing to undertake said building, agreeable to the proposed dimensions, for twenty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence, the proprietors to defray the expense of procuring the slitwork on the spot ; and the said carpenters would make the said frame good, and in all respects workmanlike, and have it ready to raise by the first day of October next ; or they would work by the day, and get it done by that time, at four shillings per day. It was voted by the proprietors that they should do it by the "great " for the sum proposed, the committee to defray the expense of the raising entertainment.
1755.
The committee for building the sawmill reported, on the 5th of March, that Mr. Ebenezer Locke, who had undertaken to build the mill in said township, informed them that some time in September last he had been at said township in order to finish said mill, and thought he should have finished the work in a little time ; but some of the inhabitants of Northfield had advised him to leave the place if he had any regard for his life; for the Indians had done mis- chief in No. 4,* and in divers other places ; and he had left it unfinished. The committee that was ap- pointed to superintend the building of the meeting- house also reported that the contractors had not performed their work ; but had " only cut ten or twenty trees towards the frame." After considerable delay
Now Charlestown, N.H.
3
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
and perplexity about the business, and several times lengthening the contract (or the time for performing the conditions of it), it was reported that the frame of the meeting-house was ready to be raised, but that a dispute had arisen as to the spot where it should stand.
1 756.
On the 10th of March this year, it was voted to alter the spot where the meeting-house should stand, and fix it not exceeding one hundred and sixty rods to the north-east, where the road from Royalshire to Northfield was intersected by the road to the Pond. The meeting-house was raised by invitation of hands from Northfield and the adjacent settlements, on the twenty-eighth day of April, 1756.
In September this year, the proprietors having pre- viously agreed to prosecute Ebenezer Locke on his bond for not erecting the sawmill, agreed to suspend the same on hearing his excuse. He stated that he had been retarded by reason of the war, and driven off, when at work on the premises, by the enemy's ap- proaching near said township, and killing divers persons, and capturing others ; and afterwards, when he had been at the charge to get up to the work for the aforesaid purpose, the enemy made one other sally, and had killed Grout, Howe, and Garfield, and carried others into captivity. Sickness in his family, and burying his daughter, are among his excuses, and also having his men enlisted into his Majesty's ser- vice.
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
We can have but a very faint idea of the sufferings and hardships which our predecessors endured in their first attempt to settle this part of the country : the lurking, savage foe, at all times on the alert, ready to take them by surprise, to kill them, and to destroy the labor of their hands; the wild beasts to haunt around their dwellings, and to tear and mangle their unguarded flocks ; the scanty means of procuring a subsistence, - hunger, poverty, and want staring them full in the face. It needed hearts of oak to success- fully repel these varied buffetings of fortune ; and
hearts of oak they verily had. How would many of the puny sons of indolence and ease at the present day have conducted, had they been placed under such trying circumstances ? They would have given up the ghost in a strange land.
1757.
On the sixth day of July, this year, eight pounds was voted to be allowed out of the treasury of the proprietors, "to fortify Mr. Samuel Scott's house, by making a good picketed fort encompassing the same, four rods square, for the safety of the inhabitants." This fort, which was the only one ever built in War- wick, was on land now owned by the Rev. John Golds- bury, and lies on the north side of the road that leads from Widow Jerusha Goldsbury's to William Hastings's ; and from this circumstance this piece of land has obtained the name of the " Old Fort," or the Fort Lot. The proprietors also voted four pounds to enclose the meeting-house.
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
1759.
Although four pounds was voted in 1757 to en- close the meeting-house, the frame was still standing at this date uncovered. But the sawmill, according to the old records, " was got a-going," so that the first sawmill that started in this town was set a-going seventy-two years ago. In May, this year, twenty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, and four pence was voted by the proprietors to build a gristmill ; and a com- mittee, consisting of Col. Joseph Williams, Mr. Joseph Mayo, and Mr. Samuel Scott, was chosen, "to pitch on a suitable spot to build it on."
I760.
On May 21, 1760, it was voted "to raise the sum of eighteen pounds, lawful money, to defray the charge of some suitable orthodox minister's preaching upon probation within said township during the sum- mer season : " and it is presumed that the Rev. Lem- uel Hedge was the candidate that preached here that summer ; for, on the 24th of September, they voted a hundred and forty-nine pounds, to be paid as follows : eighty pounds for Mr. Hedge's settlement, and sixty pounds for his first year's salary, and nine pounds for defraying the expense of his ordination.
Thus you see that the institutions of religion and morality were not neglected by our predecessors. Although poor, and hard pressed in their temporal affairs, they cheerfully devoted a part of it for the promotion of Christianity ; for they further voted that
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
they would agree to pay sixty pounds a year for five years to come, until some other suitable provision for Mr. Hedge's support should be made, provided he settled with them. A committee was chosen, consisting of Capt. David Ayres, Moses Evans, Israel Olmstead, Ebenezer Prescott, and Amzi Doolittle, "to treat with Mr. Hedge respecting his settlement here." At the same meeting they chose the same committee, with the addition of Mr. Joshua Bailey, to lay out a tract of land forty rods square around the meeting-house in said township, for a burying-place, training-field, and other public uses. This tract is what we now call the common, and contains ten acres of land : the name doubtless originated from its being laid out of what was then called common land ; viz., lands not surveyed and divided among the sixty original proprie- tors. Thus, without detriment to themselves, or any sacrifice of property to be by them felt at the time, they secured to the public a small patrimony, to be enjoyed by us and all succeeding generations that may come after us. And further still, for the accom- modation of their minister, provided he settled with them, they voted that he might have the liberty to lay out a hundred acres of land near the meeting-house, in one piece, out of any of the common lands, to be laid in regular form, in lieu of the hundred acres in the after-division (or second division) of land, that would fall to the minister's right. Subsequently the hundred acres where Mr. Stephen Reed now lives were laid out to Mr. Hedge. Messrs. James Golds- bury, Asa Wheeler, Rev. Preserved Smith (our present pastor), William Cobb, Esq., Col. Lemuel Wheelock,
3*
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
and Samuel P. Damon, are all of them located on this hundred-acre lot, although it runs southerly to Pomeroy's Pond. The committee chosen to treat with Mr. Hedge respecting his settlement here in the gospel ministry no doubt performed their duty ; for we find by the old records Mr. Hedge's answer to their call, as follows : -
To the Committee of the Proprietors of Roxbury Canada (so called) chosen to treat with me respecting my settling in said township.
GENTLEMEN, - Whereas the proprietors of Roxbury Canada (so called), at their meeting on the 24th of September, 1760, voted certain sums of money for a settle- ment and salary, and likewise granted me liberty of laying out one hundred acres of land near the meeting-house in said place (as per their vote may appear), in case I would settle there in the work of the gospel ministry, and the in- habitants of said township having by subscription made an addition to my settlement, and engage to find me annually thirty-five cords of wood, I have taken the matter into serious consideraton, and hereby inform you that I accept of this invitation to settle in this place.
.
LEMUEL HEDGE.
1761.
On Nov. 12, of this year, the proprietors were for the first time notified to meet in the meeting-house, in said township, to transact their business (having always met in Roxbury before this time). There
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
were at that time thirty-seven settlers or families located on the first division of lots. Mr. Joseph Perry lived where Mr. Joseph Willson now lives ; George Robbins where Alexander Blake, Ebenezer Davis where the widow Drake, Edward Allen where Capt. John Stearns, Thomas Rich where Medad Pomeroy, Barnabas Russell where James Ball, Moses Leonard where Eliphaz Gould, and David Ayres and David Ayres, jun., where Miss Fanny Simonds now lives.
About this time a gristmill was built on Black Brook, where the first sawmill also stood : the land is now owned by Capt. James Goldsbury ; and said mills stood a little west of William Hastings's dwelling- house, south of the road that leads to Samuel Golds- bury's from said Hastings's. In this early stage of the settlement, and until the gristmill was built, the hardy and industrious "forlorn hope" of Warwick suf- fered severely for the want of accommodations which we now enjoy : they were obliged to go a great dis- tance out of the settlement to get their grain ground ; and perhaps many times that was not the worst part of it, for many of them were poor, and had but little grain to grind. It was frequently the case that they had to go miles on foot to Northfield, or Athol, or farther still, to buy a peck of corn and get it ground, and then to bring it home on their backs. Nor was this all ; for there were instances of their going to Northfield to buy hay, and bringing it home in the same way, to save their cattle alive. It was thought in those days, that, if their hay lasted until the Ist of March, they could get their cattle through the winter.
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Seventy-two pounds was voted, this year, to finish the meeting-house ; and it was agreed to build a pew on one side or the other of the pulpit, for Mr. Hedge, he being permitted to choose the side.
To show how valuable the land was in this town at this time, it appears that lot No. 7, and all the after- rights in said town, was sold at auction for £1. 5s. 8d., which was only about four cents and three mill's per acre ; but such sales were of rare occurrence, and perhaps were never known after.
Messrs. Elisha Rich, George Robbins, James Ball, and Asa Robbins were chosen a committee to lay out the common lands in said township into two divisions, the first to contain seventy-five acre lots, and the other to be left discretionary with the committee ; and they accordingly laid out the last into sixty-six acre lots. These two divisions constitute what we call the third and fourth divisions of lands in this town. The third-division lots contain seventy-five acres, and the fourth sixty-six acres, each.
I 762.
On the twenty-seventh day of December, 1762, it was voted that the proprietors join with the inhabit- ants of the plantation, to petition the General Court to be incorporated into a town. Col. Joseph Williams and Capt. Caleb Dana were chosen a committee to join with said inhabitants in the petition.
1763.
On the seventeenth day of February, 1763, this
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
tract of country was incorporated by the General Court as a town, by the name of Warwick.
How the name originated is not now known ; but probably from Warwick in England, or from the famous " Guy, Earl of Warwick."
We have now arrived at the time, you will probably say, that I ought to have commenced my remarks, or where I might have begun with propriety the history of the town. From this period down to the present time we have a tolerably regular and legible record of most of the public proceedings of the town. I shall not follow the records, by noting every little local transaction that has happened in our public or private affairs, but shall select and abridge a few of the most interesting events, for our mutual instruc- tion, and for the benefit of posterity.
When we wish to make an inquiry about any par- ticular place or thing, the first question that suggests itself to our mind is, where, when, or how, did it happen or begin ? How, when, and where the muni- cipal proceedings of Warwick originated, shall be our first subject of inquiry.
In the third year of his Majesty's reign, Seth Field, Esq., of Northfield, by order of the General Court, issued a warrant to James Ball of Warwick, to notify the inhabitants of said town to attend the first town- meeting. Said meeting was directed to be warned by posting up a notification in some public place in said township, fourteen days before the time of hold- ing the same. This meeting was convened the ninth day of May, A.D. 1763, at nine o'clock in the morn- ing. Seth Field, Esq., acted as moderator ; James Ball
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
was chosen clerk ; Moses Evans, Jeduthan Morse, and James Ball, selectmen and assessors ; Amzi Doolittle, treasurer ; Samuel Ball, constable ; James Ball, col- lector ; Silas Town and Joshua Bailey, wardens ; Charles Wood and Joseph , tything-men ; Is- rael Olmsted and Moses Leonard, fence-viewers; Moses Leonard, Joseph Lawrence, and Joseph Good- ell, hog-reeves ; David Barrett, pound-keeper : Eben- ezer Davis, field-driver ; Amos Marsh and Moses Leonard, deer-reeves ; Moses Evans, culler of staves, shingles, and clapboards ; James Ball, sealer of weights and measures ; Moses Leonard, sealer of leather. It was voted that hogs may go at large on the common.
On the 16th of June following, the second town- meeting was held ; and they voted to Esq. Paine twenty shillings for services at the General Court in getting the town incorporated ; and Mr. James Ball was to pay him the money, and return the town's thanks. Voted twenty pounds for highways, and started the work at four shillings per day for a man, and two shillings for a yoke of oxen, and one shilling for a cart or plough. They also voted that the select- men should draw a petition to the General Court, that the westerly part of the county of Worcester, and the easterly part of the county of Hampshire, may be set off, and erected into a distinct and separate county.
At this meeting, the committee chosen for the pur- pose of treating with Mr. Hedge respecting his future support was directed to condense the proposals for- merly made into the form of an agreement, and to have it recorded on the town-book.
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Which agreement was as follows : viz., "That the town will pay to the Rev. Mr. Hedge a salary of sixty pounds until such time as there shall be eighty set- tled families in said town ; and the salary to rise as the families increase, allowing thirteen shillings and four- pence to each family : so that when there should be ninety settled families the salary would amount to sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence ; and after that, allowing four shillings and fivepence to a family, when they had increased to one hundred and fifty families, his salary should be eighty pounds, to be paid in lawful silver money, at six shillings and eightpence per ounce ; and, annually, thirty cords of wood, cut eight feet long, delivered at his door." Mr. Hedge acknowledged these proposals handsome and generous, and put his signature to them July 4, 1763. Nov. 28, the same year, James Ball, Israel Olmsted, and Silas Town were chosen a com- mittee to finish the meeting-house. June 15, this year, the selectmen laid out the first town-road (on record). They began at or near the line of Rich- mond, N.H., near where Mr. Caleb Weeks now lives, and laid said road southerly, by Thomas Mallard's, Dea. Samuel Ball's, and Capt. Josiah Proctor's, to Lot No. 51, in the second division, to Samuel Ball's house ; said road to be three rods wide ; and another road, two rods wide, by Moses Leonard's house (now Eliphaz Gould's) ; viz., within one rod of it, to the county- road.
1764. 1128223
May 30, of this year, there is a charge on the
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
town-book of fifteen shillings, for James Ball, Mr. Evans, and Mr. Nourse taking the invoice, and Mr. Morse making the highway-tax. We should think that this charge was not extravagant. This year the town accepted of a road, laid from the common, south- erly by Elijah Fisk's, and where Stephen Johnson lately lived, to Morse's Pond and Locke's Mills, where Mr. Francis Leonard's sawmill now is : said road to be three rods wide. Also a road beginning at the north-west corner of Benjamin Conant's house, which intersected the last-mentioned road near where Mr. Elijah Fisk now lives : this road was laid all the way on the top of the hill, west of the Widow Hannah Rich and Isaiah Bang's houses. Traces of this road are now visible in many places, almost directly on the ridge, south of Mr. Fisk's. Also another road, com- mencing where Mr. Jonas Leonard now lives, by Mr. Asa Ware's, to intersect the one that leads to Morse's Pond, at the Stephen Johnson place. No width si given to this road.
I765.
This year forty pounds was voted to be raised to repair highways ; and it was also voted that the select- men should take care of Elizabeth Rumble and her children, and receive them as town's poor (these are the first paupers mentioned) ; and in November this year, the town granted ten pounds, eight shillings, to be proportioned on the inhabitants according to their invoice, to defray the expense of keeping said paupers one year ; and that the inhabitants shall all have to
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HISTORY OF WARWICK.
keep said woman and her children their proportions of said rate.
I 766.
Voted to choose five selectmen this year ; and chose Benjamin Conant, James Ball, Jeduthan Morse, Amos Marsh, and Amzi Doolittle; and chose Jeduthan Morse, Ebenezer Curtis, and Amos Marsh, assessors ; raised forty pounds to support the highways, and voted two shillings to Asa -, for keeping Sarah Rumble three weeks. The first three selectmen this year laid out a burying-ground, as follows : viz., “ Be- ginning at the north-west corner of the meeting-house common, and extending east, on the north line, to a small hemlock-tree, marked for the north-east corner ; thence south, seven degrees east, to a black-oak-tree ; then due south, twelve rods, to a stake and stones ; thence west, to the west line of the common ; thence north, to the first-mentioned corner."
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